Monday, January 12, 2009

To Pillage & Plunder We Go!

Sadly when I got into Playmobil, this line has already be discontinue. A total of 11 box sets was released, the Viking Longhouse & Longboat being the most impressive! More info on the Vikings & their Longboats from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:A Viking is one of the Norse (Scandinavian) explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century. These Norsemen used their famed longships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far west as Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland. This period of Viking expansion is known as the Viking Age, and forms a major part of the medieval history of Scandinavia, the British Isles and Europe in general.Longships were ships primarily used by the Scandinavian Vikings and the Saxon people to raid coastal and inland settlements during the European Middle Ages. The vessels were also used for long distance trade and commerce, and for exploratory voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and beyond. Longship design evolved over several centuries and was fully developed by about the 9th century. The character and appearance of these ships have been reflected in Scandinavian boat-building traditions until today.The longship was characterized as a graceful, long, narrow, light wooden boat with a shallow draft hull designed for speed. The ship's shallow draft allowed navigation in waters only one meter deep and permitted beach landings, while its light weight enabled it to be carried over portages. Longships were also double-ended, the symmetrical bow and stern allowing the ship to reverse direction quickly, without having to turn around. Longships were fitted with oars along almost the entire length of the boat itself. Later versions sported a rectangular sail on a single mast which was used to replace or augment the effort of the rowers, particularly during long journeys.Longships were the epitome of Scandinavian naval power at the time, and were highly valued possessions. They were often owned by coastal farmers and commissioned by the king in times of conflict, in order to build a powerful naval force. While longships were used by the Norse in warfare, they were troop transports, not warships. In the tenth century, these boats would sometimes be tied together in battle to form a steady platform for infantry warfare. They were called dragonships by enemies such as the English. The Norse had a strong sense of naval architecture, and during the 8th–11th centuries, they were advanced for their time.